On March 16th, 1853, Prime Minister Felix arrived in Munich. After a week of negotiations, it ended in failure.
The Bavarian government clearly opposed the rebuilding of the Shinra Empire, and Felix's diplomatic efforts failed.
Under the pressure of public opinion, the Bavarian government proposed to reconvene the Federal Parliament on March 27th to decide whether or not to rebuild the Holy Roman Empire.
On March 28th, Prime Minister Felix also gave a speech at the University of Munich and publicly responded to the Bavarian government.
"I have a dream. I want to see the German Region unified in my lifetime. It is the true unification of the German nation, not the German Confederation in name. The Confederation is a joke.
Today is a terrible day. The Bavarian government closed the door to rebuilding the Holy Roman Empire. All of our efforts have failed.
It seems like there is still a long way to go for my dream to come true. If I can't see it, I hope you can continue. As the elites of the German Region, this is your responsibility and obligation.
We all know that rebuilding Shinra is the best choice for the unification of the German Region. It is the only way to achieve the unification of the country in a short period of time.
The German states have been divided for a long time and have formed their own systems. This means that it will be difficult to unify the country. It is not something that can be done in a short period of time.
Let the Federal Parliament vote? In fact, we all know that this is not an activity where the minority obeys the majority, and it is not a children's game.
Rebuilding Shinra requires the support of all states. If some people don't agree, we can barely merge an empire, but it will break due to the conflicts.
Everyone knows the consequences of coercion. Switzerland, Belgium, Holland, and Luxembourg became independent. This is their own choice. We don't need to investigate the historical reasons.
If we don't do a good job, a new wave of independence will appear. Don't doubt that there are already international forces planning to split Germany. They even colluded with internal forces in Germany.
Therefore, I have to be careful. I don't want to take a wrong step and become a sinner of Germany.
A unified German Empire must be an empire that everyone agrees with. If it can't be done, then it will only be a federation and not an empire.
I knew many people opposed the reconstruction of Shinra. They thought that the Empire was too loose. The local governments had too much power, and the central government had too little power. This kind of system didn't suit everyone's taste.
However, there was one thing that everyone had to pay attention to. If they wanted to gain the approval of all the people, they couldn't bleed. At the very least, they couldn't bleed too much.
If a civil war broke out because of unification and everyone killed each other, would they still be able to sit together peacefully after the war?
The answer was no. Under the guidance of someone with ulterior motives, this kind of hatred would quickly take root and germinate, eventually leading to division.
… "
Felix entered the zone and activated his verbal cannon mode.
Below the stage, the officials of the Bavarian government were already livid with rage, but they could not afford to lose their temper. Diplomatic etiquette was still necessary. Although Felix was scolding them, he did not call out the Bavarian government by name.
If they stood up to stop the speech, wouldn't it mean that they had a guilty conscience?
Moreover, the students' emotions had already been aroused. If they were to provoke them at this time, God knows if there would be any youths who would start a revolution.
This wasn't without precedent. More than 90% of the revolutions in Europe were started by youths who shouted without thinking and then blindly followed.
For example, the February Revolution in France, the March Revolution in Vienna, the March Revolution in Berlin, and so on. These revolutions were not strictly organized in advance. Once the slogans were shouted, everyone followed blindly.
Ever since the Bavarian government made the decision, they increased their vigilance to prevent youths from causing trouble.
For example, there were more than three digits of police officers in the University of Munich. On the surface, they were protecting Prime Minister Felix's safety, but in reality, they were also monitoring the people he came into contact with.
One had to know that Prime Minister Felix was now the most unstable factor in the Kingdom of Bavaria. His status was too high, and the Bavarian government could only hope that he would get lost quickly.
As much as the government hated him, the people welcomed him. Most Bavarians respected the pacifist Austrian prime minister very much.
After about an hour, Felix stopped his speech and entered the interactive session.
A young student said excitedly, "Dear Prime Minister Felix, I would like to ask how we can guarantee that the Holy Roman Empire can treat every state fairly?"
Felix had answered this kind of question many times along the way. He repeated it again.
"This question is very simple. It depends on a system, a fair system. I don't believe in the so-called rule of man, because people are selfish and have their own inclinations. Only a fair system can solve the problem.
This system will be jointly formulated by all the states and announced to the whole country. Everyone will judge whether it is fair or not. "
The bullshit mode started, and the audience applauded. The accompanying officials of the Bavarian government closed their eyes, as if they didn't want to see it.
Another young student asked curiously, "Prime Minister, does such a perfect system exist?"
Felix answered without the slightest hesitation, "Nope!"
Ignoring the uproar at the scene, he continued, "There is no perfect system in the world. A system that seems wonderful today may be outdated tomorrow. What we can do is to constantly update the system and make it more suitable for us.
From the beginning of human society, the earliest tribal civilization, the matriarchal clan, to the patriarchal system, and then into the slavery era, the first countries appeared …
This series of social changes are all self-adjustment and improvement of the social system. In our eyes today, the current system is more advanced than the past.
But in fact, if our ancestors had adopted the current advanced system, the German nation would have become history. It can't even be found in the history books.
Is this a problem with the system? Obviously not!
The productivity of society determines the production system, so don't echo the crowd and criticize the decadence and backwardness of the past social system. At least at that time, those systems were in line with the needs. "
Everyone's thoughts were too active, and the questions were too tricky. Felix had no choice but to lead the conversation as far as possible and control the rhythm as much as possible.
…
"Prime Minister, after the establishment of the Holy Roman Empire, Austria will become the new central government. Isn't this unfair to the other states?"
A young student's question brought the topic back again.
"You're wrong. The central government is jointly established by the states. If Austria becomes the central government, who can this central government command?
As for fairness, I think it can only be guaranteed by a notarized constitution. The right to speak in politics between the big states and the small states is certainly different. If it has to be the same, it's actually unfair to the big states.
True fairness is equal treatment, not privilege. My ideal Holy Roman Empire is a world without privilege.
How much you contribute to this country will be how much you get in return. This return can be money or social status.
In other words, it is to open the door to the upper class, even if this door may only be opened a small crack. "Prime Minister Felix continued to bluff.
The mixture of truth and falsehood made his speech more convincing.
It openly revealed the cruelty of society. The states did not have privileges, but the gap in individual social status still existed.
This mode of speech was the result of painstaking research by the Government of Austria's staff. It had to be able to arouse the emotions of the people, but not let the emotions get out of control.
This degree was not easy to grasp. If the fanatical nationalism was ignited, Austria would not be able to bear the consequences.
…
Due to the Bavarian government being too vigilant, Prime Minister Felix only gave a few speeches before he set foot on the road back.
There was no doubt that this diplomatic action failed. Other than a few German states expressing their support for the reconstruction of Shinra, the rest were mostly implicitly expressing their opposition.
Especially after the Bavarian government publicly expressed their opposition, the German Region set off a wave of criticism against the Holy Roman Empire.
Of course, the governments of the various countries did not dig up the dark history. It was also a stain for the local governments to oppose the central government. It was an absolute political mistake and could not be brought up.
After listening to Felix's report, Franz realized the situation in the German Region was more complicated than he had imagined.
Most of the German people were one-track minded. Once they decided on something, it would be difficult to pull it back.
This meant that they had to be convinced. If they could not get their approval, it could be said that unifying Germany was just a dream.
If they did not do it well, it was very likely that it would be like what Felix said in his speech — an outbreak of independence.
"Your Majesty, the nationalism in the German Region is growing very fast. If we stir up the nationalism now, we still have hope to achieve unification through political means," Prime Minister Felix suggested.
Perhaps he was too immersed in his role, but now Felix was really considering the issue of using political means to unify Germany.
Franz shook his head and said, "This will not succeed. If we really make the Holy Roman Empire, I'm afraid that England, France, and Russia will immediately stop fighting and turn around to find trouble with us."
If the German Region was unified, Russia's European hegemony would be gone, France's European hegemony dream would be broken, and England's Continental Balance Policy would also be ruined.
This was a conflict of core interests that was related to their future development and survival. In order to prevent this from happening, they would definitely take action. There were no 'if's.
Even if England, France, and Russia were at war in the Near East, the secret contact between the three governments had never been broken.
Franz was sure that England and France did not want to fight anymore. If it were not for the fact that they had no other choice and were forced into a difficult situation, they would most likely compromise with the Russians.
Now that they wanted to compromise, the prerequisite was that the Russians had to make concessions, or they would not be able to explain themselves.
Did the Tsarist government want to continue fighting? The answer was no. The cruelty of the war had awakened many people, and they were also in a difficult situation.
Making concessions was easy to say, but it was difficult to do! Once the Tsarist government made a compromise, internal conflicts would erupt. Naturally, Nicholas I Of Russia wanted to end it with a beautiful battle.
Now that Constantinople was in front of him, as long as he took this fortress city, all the crises of the Tsarist government would be solved. He would also become the greatest Tsar in the history of Russia.
As for other interests, the Black Sea Fleet was finished. Even if they entered the Mediterranean Sea, they could not rely on swimming, right?
Annexing the Osman Empire? Fighting a war also required money. The Russians had the military strength, but they did not have the financial resources to match it.
They could even interfere with the German Region while fighting a war. With the Kingdom of Prussia, England, France, and Russia only needed to shout a few times, and the Holy Roman Empire would be disbanded.
After being pointed out by Franz, Felix immediately woke up. The Shinra Empire was still far from being a real empire. Without external threats, the problem could be solved slowly, but the problem now was internal and external collusion.
…
Metternich said, "Your Majesty, the time is ripe now. We can start the next step of the plan."
Franz nodded, indicating that he agreed.
Austria was not strong enough to start a war at the slightest disagreement. If there was no acceptable reason, it would cause public anger, and the people of Prussia would take advantage of it.
Just political disagreements were not enough to constitute a reason for war. Now they needed to add fuel to the fire to give the Bavarian government the final historical conclusion.
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